From the opening credits that are pushed over a windshield in the rain, to a dead-man's p.o.v. from inside a car trunk, and pre-Breathless jump cuts, this great little-known French film noir starring Jeanne Moreau has all the dark obsessiveness of the form: truth or consequences played out in shadows and light, in ambient sounds, and an all-important attention to detail. In the Jean-Pierre Melville tradition, crime is the hardest work of all. A wealthy industrialist's discovery of his wife's affair with a second-rate actor leads to a complicated form of blackmail, emotional and literal. This is all we will divulge of a plot that uses narrative time as a real device, and suppressed passion as a weapon of choice. (In many ways, this is a male Jeanne Dielman). Moreau's wonderful performance argues against femme fatalism, adding a brilliant tension to the film.